Editorial: Beyond talk and on to solutions

We will make a case in 2008 for a shared set of priorities to move the needle on key problems. We will focus on specific solutions that can nurture the region's economic and social development.

Jan. 13, 2008

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Growing Metro Milwaukee

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Editorial Board's community round-table series last year always had a motive in mind.

Our round tables brought together key community leaders over the year to discuss how to improve the region's quality of life. Specifically, we discussed economic development, K-12 education, higher education, health care, childhood poverty, arts and culture, climate change, crime and regional cooperation. We then convened experts for a final, more focused, discussion. They talked about crime, education, economic development, poverty and health care.

And the purpose all along was to help the Editorial Board develop a shared set of community priorities that we will emphasize throughout the coming year.

We call it Agenda '08: Growing Metro Milwaukee. We explain our thinking in an editorial today.

Last year, the Journal Sentinel Editorial Board listened to community leaders as we convened 10 round tables to discuss the issues affecting metro Milwaukee's quality of life.

Today, we launch Agenda '08: Growing Metro Milwaukee.

We are taking the discussion to the next level: Solutions.

In a yearlong campaign, the Editorial Board will shed a light and try to make a difference on some key projects and problems that can spell improved quality of life. Left unattended, we believe, the problems will continue to contribute to a diminished ability for the region to compete.

And as the name suggests, the items we've picked for Agenda '08 reflect what we heard through much of the '07 round-table series.

• We live or die, improve or not, as a region. A strong Milwaukee is as important as a thriving Waukesha, Cedarburg or Germantown. Pewaukee's and Racine's woes and needs are very much Milwaukee's. It's about the region.

• Economic development is the wellspring from which all progress flows.

• But the region's social development will determine whether its waters can adequately sustain us or if that spring flows at all.

This all may sound grandiosely ambitious, but we recognize the need for incremental improvements. That's why we will target our efforts.

We cannot editorialize away poverty. We can, however, tackle teen pregnancy, that pernicious and entirely avoidable building block of poverty.

We can map out a route to meaningful health care reform that ensures people have universal access to affordable care regardless of their economic station.

These two items - teen pregnancy and health care reform - are the social development elements of Agenda '08. In truth, they are as critical to the region's economic well-being as any of the issues we've picked to move the needle in economic development.

Under that economic development umbrella, we will campaign for the KRM commuter rail link running from Milwaukee to Racine and Kenosha. KRM will be even more effective as a tool to grow metro Milwaukee if the region's disparate transit systems can be consolidated under a single regional authority.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukeealready contributes much to the region's economy. We will do all we can editorially to make the case that an expanded School of Engineering and a new school of public health, both now on the drawing board, will further enrich the region with useful research and entrepreneurialism.

And we will launch a discussion about Wisconsin's taxes. Our premise: Property taxes are too high, and it is simply unrealistic to continue to rely on them as the primary way to pay for government services. We will hold governments and lawmakers accountable for how they raise and spend your money.

So, the umbrella categories are social and economic development, but the specific targets are teen pregnancy, health care reform, KRM, UWM and taxes.

Teen pregnancy

It's difficult to think of a circumstance that so reliably produces so many bad outcomes. Teen mothers are more likely to drop out of school and remain single parents. They are more likely to remain on some form of public assistance.

But another important thing about teen pregnancy is what happens to the children. Name the rate - school dropout, incarceration, poverty, unprotected sexual activity early on - and the children of teen mothers are more likely to provide the numbers. Too often they do not progress enough to break the cycle of poverty. And breaking that cycle is what this region needs to do.

Milwaukee ranks seventh - down from second - in the nation in teen births as a percentage of all births, according to an Annie E. Casey Foundation study.

Many people are working on this. We'll look at who is making a difference.

Health care reform

This will dominate the national presidential debate. A federal solution is preferable, but waiting for that isn't in our game plan. With the knowledge that the states are likely to be the laboratories on this topic, we will push for a state solution, still paying attention to the national debate.

Traditionally, Wisconsin has had one of the lowest percentage of uninsured adults and children, which is scant comfort to the thousands without insurance. Starting Feb. 1, with the advent of BadgerCare Plus, every Wisconsin child will have access to health insurance. But there is still the issue of ease of enrollment - it must be smooth - and there are still those uninsured adults. Moreover, access is only one part of the health care problem. The other biggie is spiraling costs. Both employers and consumers are being priced out of the game, a trend that is expected to continue. And there are problems with portability, pre-existing conditions and catastrophic illness.

Wait for the feds? No way.

KRM

The region's business leaders love it. A significant bloc of the state Legislature doesn't. And so a proposed $200 million train line that would link Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee and connect to Chicago's Metra hasn't left the station.

No, it isn't an economic panacea, but it can, along with truly regional transit, be a big part of connecting southeastern Wisconsin communities with one another and with Chicagoland. It has economic synergy written all over it. The more metro Milwaukee is linked with metro Chicago, the more competitive we'll be.

Needed is state legislation that would enable an increase in the car rental tax to fund the trains. Some propose binding local referendums to create the increase. Editorially, we'll map out a reasonable way forward.

UWM

Chancellor Carlos Santiago has pledged to make his school a major research university. If that happens, metro Milwaukee will prosper. We'll explain why a new engineering campus and an innovation park to accommodate spinoff businesses is key to the effort.

That campus and innovation park should be on what is now Milwaukee County land in Wauwatosa. In November, philanthropist Michael Cudahy pledged an unspecified amount to buy 83 acres of County Grounds property near Highway 45 and Swan Blvd. Moreover, Santiago, as of November, had raised $122 million in UWM's capital campaign.

The engineering school and a school of public health would attract research dollars and also address nagging public health concerns. Despite some progress, these two projects are a ways from fruition. We will help them along.

Taxes

Here's what the Tax Foundation said about Wisconsin last year. It is No. 39 in the foundation's annual ranking of state business tax climates. Wisconsin had the seventh-highest state and local taxes on its residents. And its property taxes were the nation's highest in proportion to the value of owner-occupied homes.

No, these figures shouldn't be taken at face value. There are caveats and ahems aplenty, not the least of which is our relatively low ranking in government spending.

In the year ahead, we will try to bring some sense to this perpetual debate. But we think this much is settled: Wisconsin residents' tax burden is heavy. We'll look at whether it's too heavy, factoring in services rendered; whether everyone is paying their fair share; whether it is enough; and whether government takes too much of our taxes from one basket - homeowners.

We will take up all of these Agenda '08 issues with a steady drumbeat of editorials and cover stories for our Sunday Crossroads section throughout the year. We will seek out experts to deepen our - and your - knowledge. We will identify the public policy-makers who can make things happen and, if things aren't happening, why that's so. We will seek out counter views. We will present this all in multimedia fashion - in print and online, with words and with audio and video.

This will not be a lecture, and we won't be scolding with a wagging finger. Instead, we want to make a case for the region adopting a shared set of priorities. We want to do that with fact and reason.

One of the best ways to do that is to highlight what works. So, a linchpin in this effort will be seeking out those programs and ideas that model what can be done or expanded for broader impact. If we find such solutions here, that's great. If we find them elsewhere, we'll bring them home to you.